How Amazon Search Terms Can Help Your Books

Monday, August 19, 2013

Ever notice
that when you’ve edited your work until your eyeballs hurt, you want to just
give up? But, as always, you keep moving forward until you know when the book
is done.

When I get to that point, I find ways
to distract myself, which usually involves reading and research. What I’ve
discovered this time around is the importance of matching my blurbs to keyword
searches that people do when they’re looking for books to buy.

I know this is
some obvious stuff and I’ve read about this a time or two before, but I’ve been
too lazy to do anything about it. This time, I decided to actually try and see
if matching keywords works. So, what did I do? I followed some instructions
that basically was geared toward Amazon’s search engines finding my books,
based on the categories in which they’re listed.

I did it with Christine’s Odyssey, but
it was a little harder to match certain keywords to the book blurb. Still, I
got results. The following day, the book came up at #81 in the Children’s
Fiction category and sank into obscurity, thanks to the lack of any promotional
activity. Anyway, I digress.

I looked at the seven keywords I used
for Distraction,
which are Domestic Abuse, Relationships, Romance, Jamaica, Women’s Fiction,
African-American, Multicultural, and Drama. Then, I looked at my blurb (which
isn’t bone dry, but could be a bit meatier) below.

Three Jamaican women walk a tightrope of decisions when their lives are
derailed by blackmail, deceit and infidelity.

JUSTINE CHARLES, sensible and
self-contained, battles an addiction which could destroy her marriage,
reputation, and relationship with
her daughter.

DIONNE JONES, an aggressive
go-getter, takes risks that cut a trail of devastation through her family and
business.

Can two of the long-time friends
survive startling revelations involving their partners? And will the
other push her obsession to the point of danger?

Based on what
I read, my aim is supposed to be fitting as many of my seven keywords as
possible into my blurb. As naturally as possible, of course and I’m allowed to
use other material, such as reviews, etc.So what did I come up with?See
below.

Three Jamaican women walk a tightrope of
decisions when their lives are derailed by blackmail, deceit and infidelity.

JUSTINE CHARLES—sensible and
self-contained—is sidetracked by romance
outside of her marriage. Despite living with domestic abuse, she battles an addiction that threatens to destroy
her home, reputation and relationship
with her daughter.

DIONNE JONES, an aggressive
go-getter, is obsessed with financial freedom. Her fixation leads her down a
path that few women have the courage to tread and cuts a trail of devastation
through her family life and business.

KYRA
MILLS—struggling
single mother—is crippled by debt, bad judgment and destructive choices. The drama never ends, thanks to a liaison
with a man determined not to let her go, even if it means putting her life at
risk.

Can two of the long-time
friends survive startling revelations involving their partners? And will the
other push her obsession to the point of danger?

PRAISE FOR DISTRACTION

J.
L. Campbell’s Distraction is a read as enticing as the honey and
caramel-skinned feisty women whose intertwined dilemmas are spiced with
dialect and pinched with a generous helping of tropical Jamaica.

~ Caroline Kellems, The Coffee Diary

Distraction
is an exciting, unforgettable story of love, betrayal and secrets.

~ Diana Hockley, The
Naked Room and Celibate Mouse

Distraction is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of
three women, each with their own distinct set of problems. I fell in love with
the exotic Jamaican setting which seemed to me, another character. Campbell’s
writing is compelling and she doesn’t fail to deliver with Distraction.

~ Jeanne Bannon, Invisible

Distraction is an
insightful look into the hearts of three women who break society's rules in
search of happiness and completion.
~ Nancy DeMarco, Finding Sara

Okay, so I
forgot I’d used reviews on the back cover of the paperback. I dug through my
email until I found those and added them in.

I’ve put the
keyword in both samples in bold and you’ll notice that I’ve used more of them
in sample two – the ones I could fit in that didn’t sound clunky.

I did this on
Sunday afternoon and it didn’t take me more than 15 minutes to tweak the blurb.
Long story short? I checked less than an hour ago and Distraction is showing up
at #76 in the African-American Women’s Fiction category.

See screenshots
below. Note that the blurb on Amazon has not changed from the original version
as at 11:20 am today, however, the Amazon search engine is obviously at work. BTW, I did this while logged in from the Amazon Author Central dashboard.

So d’you think
based on the results—more visibility and possibly more book sales—that I should
go ahead and take the time to do this with my other books? If you said yes,
then we’re on the same page. Pun intended.

Thanks, also for the comment on Alex's blog this morning. Craft fairs, art fairs, and yes even antique or flea markets are a great place to sell books. Some more so than others. But a smile eases the competition!

Interesting stuff. This is all part of the marketing that the publishing industry took care of in the "old days." It takes a while for the self-published to figure out how to best market their books. There is a system; you just have to figure out how to work it!

True that, Robin. I wish I'd even known some of this stuff when I was first published. I had no idea what to do when my first book was published. To give the publisher credit, she did give a bunch of us some tips on a teleconference that helped a bit, but most of my work has to be done online to spread the word.

Excellent idea! I came up with the title Frozen Dolls for my final The Sacrifice series novella in part because I used Amazon to check the popularity for the title. Definitely feel I picked the right one and you should do what you've done with the rest of your books. Blurb's are essential, a terrible blurb will burn long after the beauty of a cover fades.

Okay, I get working the key words into the blurb (though somehow I thought that putting them into the info would direct searchers to my books). But--how did you figure out which appropriate keywords would be searched on? That's where I'm having trouble!

Hi, Rebecca, The keywords are already there in Amazon. For example if you start typing in 'young adult' Amazon will bring up that term along with a host of others. It's up to you to choose the combination of words that best fits your book or what you figure readers will put in when they're searching for stuff they like.

I'm not sure there are people who actually like reading about child abuse, but that's one of the terms I'll be using (or something close to it) so it will clue readers in to the subject matter of the book.

You could also check out Michael Alvears's book Make a Killing on Kindle (Without Blogging, Facebook or Twitter). I don't agree with some of his methods, but it makes for interesting reading and you will learn some interesting stuff.